Small acts, great impacts! How our factory in Brazil purged the plastic

900,000 disposable plastic cups. That’s how many were used by workers at our factory in São José dos Campos, Brazil in 2021. By anyone’s standards, that’s a lot of single-use plastic.

I discovered this when I visited the factory, situated 100km from São Paulo, during the summer. Why was this fact shared with me? Because I was being told about a rather remarkable sustainability initiative - how the factory managed to reduce this number to something more palatable.

So, take a guess - how many disposable plastic cups have been used so far in 2022? The answer is zero! Not one disposable cup has been used this year. They’ve been completely phased out for reusable ones.

How did the factory achieve this remarkable feat? Rather than be overwhelmed by the scale of the challenge, Luciana Leite and Ilana Cotrim - helped by a young talented intern Keila Uchoas - came up with creative ideas to tackle the problem.

Creative approaches to reducing waste

It was a huge undertaking. The first hurdle was getting the message through to around 700 people, many of whom work shifts. How could they engage everybody?

The team in Brazil ran an amazing internal campaign, one that couldn’t be delivered digitally as it wouldn’t have the required reach. The communications team had to be super creative to provide something tangible that everyone could experience in real life when they arrived at work.

So the team decided on a visual and tactile approach. They turned areas of the factory into pop-up exhibition spaces where they could demonstrate the environmental and social impact of disposable plastics. Over the course of a few weeks, various displays were erected. These included: an exhibition of photos showing plastic pollution in the natural world, a suspended globe covered in cups and a large ‘curtain’ that was constructed of plastic cups hung from the ceiling.

The campaign culminated in a launch event in an Ericsson auditorium that was styled as a cinema. There was even popcorn available for everybody! At the launch, new, reusable cups were handed out: bright blue and with the words ‘Me & Ericsson: pioneering a sustainable future’ printed on them. Now, every member of Ericsson staff in the factory has a special collapsible reusable cup that they carry around with them, clipped to their belt.

I’m so impressed! Tackling something that seems overwhelming - a mountain of plastic - and reducing it from 900,000 pieces to zero is incredible.

It’s testimony not only to our factory workers who readily responded to the call, but also to my marketing and communications colleagues who approached the challenge so creatively. They shone a light on the environmental and social impact of disposable plastics in a really engaging way.

And of course, the repercussions of this initiative are far reaching as the environmental message spreads to homes, friends and family. It gets us all thinking: what else can we do? Even when the task in hand appears insurmountable.

Digitisation as a driver for a more sustainable world

I’m really excited about the role 5G can play - and digitalisation as a whole - as an important driver for sustainability. Here are three areas where Ericsson is committed to making a difference:

1. While at our São José dos Campos factory I saw where some of our new energy-efficient 5G radios are being manufactured. One of these is AIR 6419, which is among our latest generation of mid-band Massive MIMO antenna-integrated radios. AIR 6419 is 20 percent more energy-efficient than the comparable previous radio.
2. 5G itself is the most energy-efficient standard to date and Ericsson’s 5G will be ten times more energy efficient than 4G by the end of this year. A Europe-wide analysis by McKinsey found that using 5G technology across four high-emitting sectors could create annual savings in emissions equivalent to taking one in seven cars off the EU’s roads.
3. The manufacturing sector as a whole is responsible for 32% of the total global carbon emission. Transport-related emissions represent 21% of the global total. When we apply connectivity, especially 5G, in these industries we can reduce those emissions dramatically. We’re already making headway with 5G: our experiments in shipping logistics, smart factories and transportation show the huge impact digitisation can bring.

Pioneering a sustainable future

One of the great things about Ericsson, and why I love working here, is that we’re focused on effecting positive change at all levels. From the smallest of items - single-use plastic cups - to fundamental changes in how technology and digitalisation can reduce carbon emissions, I’m upbeat about what we can all do to drive positive change.

Thanks to all my Ericsson colleagues - from our communications team to our wonderful factory workers, and everyone in between - who are pushing ahead with innovative solutions.